Orientation begins...

I met everyone in my orientation group and got my itenerary. Today our group leaves for the palace of Juan Carlos I for a tour. Tomorrow we leave for Toledo. It´s odd saying this, but I speak the best Spanish in my group, something that has never happened to me before. I was talking to one of my orientation leaders (her name is Alejandra), expressing my fear that I might never become perfect in Spanish. She pretty much said that was pretty stupid and by the end of May, given how far ahead I am already, I would be perfect by then. In Chile I worked my butt off to learn as much as I could. Every night I would spend an hour memorizing words, and every next day I would make sure I would use 3+ of those new words in conversation. Rote memorization is pretty fallible and easy to forget what you´ve learned, but putting it into practice the next day ensures long-lasting retention. It paid off. One girl said that a lot of people in our group are very intimidated to speak in Spanish with me. I hate speaking in English here so my friends are the Spanish workers, my orientation leaders and whoever I´m sitting next to at a restaurant. Of course, learning Spanish comes at a price of pride. (This is a segue into an anectode). When I was in Chile I learned a very common phrase: acabo de ____. That means ´I have just ______´. One time, however, during a conversation with my host family, I was trying to think of the next word to use after acabo de. So I said the word I knew (acabo) and then paused in thought. Suddenly my family burst out laughing. They explained that while acabo de ____ is all too common, to not insert ´de _____´ quickly after it means.... well.... that I´m orgasming. That was a pretty embarrassing day and they definitely reminded me of that party foul for a while.

Anyways, I woke early today to see the sunrise over Madrid. And I have taken some photos. Also, I had an amazing breakfast of assorted hams. I really like this city, a lot more than Sevilla. Alright, I need to go. Ciao.